The One Who Knocks
by ExactChase
Summary: After Ruby is diagnosed with lung cancer, she becomes something different as she begins manufacturing an illegal type of dust in order to leave her sister something when she's gone. When someone opens their door and gets shot. She is the one who knocks. [Breaking Bad Fusion]
1. Fatigue

**A/N: This story is based solely on the pilot for the AMC show Breaking Bad it doesn't constitute as a crossover, as little, if any characters from the AMC show will appear in this story. And, just a brief warning; while this story won't have any actual smut, (just like how the pilot didn't have any full on porn) but it might get pretty close. And this first chapter will be pretty heavily based on the first episode, (rewatch the first episode if certain things happen in here for no apparent reason) but I can assure you that the rest will be of my** **own imagination.**

It was dark and quiet in the Team RWBY dorm, not one noise from any one of its occupants, and not one speck of light. WBY was fast asleep, each one of them sprawled out in their beds. However, their leader was wide awake, blankly staring at the ceiling. She had tried desperately to return to sleep, but sleep would not return to her.

Ruby admitted defeat and moved her gaze to the ceiling in between the bunk beds, where an alarm clock was dimly projecting the time in a deep red; 5:02 AM.

Ruby looked back to the space above her bed, lying motionless as she just laid there and thought. Her gaze returned to the time; 5:03 AM.

Ruby sighed and rose from her bed, dropping onto the floor carefully, as not to wake her teammates. She plodded through the darkness, and into the bathroom, leaving off the light and closing the door behind her. But Ruby did not use the bathroom, she simply sat on the edge of the bathtub, staring at her reflection in the mirror.

Ruby examined herself in the mirror, noting the slight bagginess under her eyes, she examined the rest of her body. She scanned every aspect of what she could see in the mirror. She didn't hate looking at her reflection, but she didn't enjoy it either.

The girl stood and locked the door before removing her pajamas, leaving her in just a pair of panties. Which she soon abandoned as well. She now stood, completely nude in the center of the bathroom, a rather bored look on her face. She slowly sat back down on the tub, feeling the cold porcelain against her rear end.

Ruby felt an overwhelming feeling of shame as she moved her hand down to her crotch. This was the third night she had gotten up to such a thing, and she felt bad about it. This couldn't be a normal occurrence for other girls, right? After all, she had never seen any of her teammates get up in the middle of the night like she had. It was quite possible that others did this, but as much as Ruby did? No. No way.

But it really didn't matter, now did it? Ruby was doing it now and that's all that mattered to her. She felt no shame during the act, only before and after. She felt nothing but mind numbing pleasure during. And that's why she continued, despite the shame.

Ruby moaned softly and fell off the tub as she finished. She now felt immensely tired. She yawned loudly as she slid her clothes back onto her body, masking her pale form.

Ruby yawned as she plopped down at the breakfast table. Her teammates had taken the liberty of getting her breakfast for her, and for that she thanked them.

"What time are you gonna be home?" Yang asked the girl. Ruby looked at her for a second, coughing as she tried to figure out what the blonde meant. It was the weekend, so there weren't any classes.

"Work." Yang told her.

Ruby nodded. "Six." She told her sister.

Yang nodded.

"I don't want him dicking around tonight." Yang told her. "You get paid till six, you work till six. Not seven."

Ruby said nothing, just nodded and returned to her breakfast. Ruby had recently been forced to get a job at a local car wash in Vale, as Weiss, the group's main source of money had been cut off by her father, resulting in a shortage of many of the essentials for living. Such items included toiletries, and nonessential things Yang insisted were essential, such as junk food and recreational activities like going out.

Ruby, as the leader, decided that she would be the one to seek employment, as she needed the experience, Weiss was too prissy to get a real job, Ruby would have felt bad giving the job to Blake, and Yang spent years providing for Ruby when their father shut down.

This whole situation sucked for Ruby, as it meant spending most of her time away from classes at work. The girl was often exhausted from all the work, but felt as though it was worth it because her friends were happy. However, this did cause some friction among the four, as Ruby was constantly tired and miserable, while her teammates had energy and were happy. Sometimes just their very existence rubbed the girl the wrong way. But she'd be lying if she said they weren't like her family.

Ruby's job at the carwash was to work the cash register while others washed the vehicles that came through.

"Eight, nine, ten. And ten makes twenty. Please come again!" Ruby said in the cheeriest voice she could muster. The customer she served wandered off, recounting his change. Ruby closed the drawer and began to busy herself with record keeping, while the owner argued on the phone.

"No!" The man yelled. "Not— that is not what I said! What I said to you—!"

The conversation on the other end seemed to be getting heated, as the man barked something into the receiver and slammed the phone back onto the wall. The owner of the car wash was a dark skinned faunas named Amir. He, like Blake, was a cat faunas. His dark, scraggly hair matched his ears, making it almost impossible to see them.

"My sister's worthless son!" Amir angrily said to Ruby. "Piece of shit! Shit! Fired for good this time!"

Ruby winced at the harsh words as the man lightly pushed her away from the register.

"I'll run the register." He told her.

"No," Ruby said. "We talked about this—!" She coughed. "Inside only, and only till six!"

"I am short handed, Ruby!" He said. "What am I to do?! What am I to do?!"

Ruby angrily sighed and marched outside to the actual car wash, cursing under her breath.

It was now night time, as she trudged back to her dorm. She knew exactly how she would be greeted when she returned; they would be nice, of course, and actually greet her before extending her an invitation to whatever it was they were doing— or about to do. She always turned them down.

However, as Ruby angrily walked in, slamming the door behind her, none of them dared say a word. No one greeted her. They just remained quiet as she began to collect her pajamas. Yang stopped her.

"We were actually thinking about going somewhere to eat with JNPR." The blonde told her.

"Okay?" Ruby quietly said.

"We want you to come with us." Yang said.

"Just go without me." Ruby told her, motioning to a large jar on the nightstand, filled with money.

Yang shook her head, "You've been working hard for that," she said. "We want you to be able to enjoy some of it."

This sentence relieved a part of Ruby's anger, and the corners of her lips curved ever so slightly.

"What time do they close?" The younger girl asked.

"Twelve." Weiss told her.

"Alright…" Ruby told the three. "I'll go. Just let me take a shower.

She turned and entered the bathroom to relieve the stress the only way she knew how. She rid herself of her work clothes and turned on the shower, her hands already beginning to move south as she stepped into the spray of warm water.

Ruby gasped quietly as her fingers made contact. As her hand began to move, she tried her hardest to be quiet about her moans of pleasure so that her team didn't hear her. Her back pressed against the wall as she continued. It became harder and harder to hide her moans as she neared completion, but she managed. As Ruby finally finished, she loudly gasped, her nude body sliding down the wall and onto the floor.

Unfortunately for her, the pleasure came with a cost; it made her breath heavier. Unfortunately, the fact that the room had filled with steam made this harder, resulting in a coughing fit as she attempted to catch her breath, which she quickly did.

Ruby now laid on the shower floor, panting with one hand resting on her womanhood and the other on one of her breasts.

There was a knock at the door.

"You okay in there, Rubes?" Yang called.

Ruby quickly sat up, moving her hands away from her private areas and looking towards the door.

"Yeah!" Ruby called back. "I'm fine!"

"Okay!" Ruby heard Yang's footsteps move away from the door, so she stood.

Teams RWBY and JNPR all sat huddled in a large, circular booth at some chain restaurant in Vale. Ruby and Jaune sat on the edges, Yang beside Ruby and Pyrrha across from her. In the center of the booth were the remainders of both teams. Nora sat beside Pyrrha and Blake beside Yang, leaving Weiss and Ren in the center.

"Amir, this guy's name is?" Weiss asked. "Jesus, call Homeland."

"Weiss!" Pyrrha said, shocked that she would say such a thing.

"She's kidding." Blake said, glaring at the heiress.

"I'm serious." Weiss said. "Call the VBI, see if he's legal. Might not be. Ship him back to camel land."

"Watch it." Blake said.

"I don't know, Weiss" Jaune said. "Do they actually have camels in Menagerie?"

Blake shook her head. "No." She growled. "Horses."

"Menagerie?" Weiss asked. "What? Camels, horses, Grimm— an animal is an animal."

Weiss noticed the look Blake was giving her and stopped herself. She didn't mean for it to come off like that.

"I was talking about Mystralian outsiders." Weiss clarified. "You're missing my point here. This guy is treating our friend like a doormat. Here Ruby is, she's got a brain the size of Vacuo, and she's shampooing the backseat of some dirtbag's car?"

Yang set her menu down and looked at Ruby, who was ignoring the conversation in favor of the menu.

"Give me the word," she said. Ruby glanced in her direction, showing that she was listening. "I'll talk to this guy, I'll set him straight."

Ruby gave a pained little smile, and shook her head.

"You sure?" Yang asked. "Happy to do it!"

"No." Ruby said, "Thank you. Let's please change the subject."

Everyone nodded, and Nora spoke up.

"Did you guys hear about that huge drug bust in Atlas today?" She energetically asked.

Ruby, having decided what she wanted, set down her menu and gave Nora her full attention, shaking her head.

"They found shoeboxes full of money and drugs. It was like— a million lien!" She looked around wildly as she said this. No one seemed impressed, they just waited for Ren to correct her.

"It was seven hundred thousand lien," he said. "She's technically right."

"That has to be unusual, right?" Ruby asked.

Nora smiled wider, happy to see that Ruby was once again taking interest in conversations.

"Nope!" She said. "Drug dealers make a lot of money!"

Ruby chuckled at how nonchalant the statement was, happy that things were beginning to go back to normal. She yawned.

"I'll be back," she told them, beginning to slide out of her seat. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom."

The others nodded, and Ruby stood. Her legs felt weak for some reason, and she was light headed. The girl took three steps before her legs gave out. She fell onto the edge of an empty table, causing it to flip onto its side.

Her friends leapt from their seats, rushing to where she lay. Yang flipped the younger girl onto her back, noting that her eyes were closed. She lightly smacked the younger girl.

"Come on!" She anxiously said. "Come on, Rubes, wake up!"

The blonde suddenly turned to face the others.

"Call an ambulance!" She shouted, her eyes a dark shade of red. Jaune nodded, pointing to the scroll against his ear. She looked down at Ruby and sighed, her eyes returning to their normal lilac color.


	2. Seventeen

It had been several hours since RWBY and JNPR arrived at the hospital with an unconscious Ruby, yet the girl had yet to wake up. Not that they had been able to see her. They were running tests, trying to figure out why this happened. Had it happened to someone in their forties, they would have chalked it up to low blood sugar and standing up too fast. But Ruby was young and healthy. The doctors had been giving Yang occasional updates, seeing that she was Ruby's family, and the most recent update shook the blonde to her core. It made her feel sick. Nothing had been confirmed, but it was narrowed down to a few things.

"What did they say?" Pyrrha asked when Yang returned.

"I-It's not good." Yang told them.

"What is it?" Weiss asked.

"They haven't confirmed anything," Yang began, "But they said it could be a few things; fatigue caused her to fall, and the table knocked her out. She could have just plain tripped onto the table. They said that cough of her's could have caused shortness of breath, causing her to pass out."

"That's not that bad…" Nora said.

"Or it could be lung cancer…" Yang quietly added.

Silence fell upon the two teams, all of them staring at Yang, who looked as though she was about to cry.

"If it is cancer?" Jaune asked.

Yang made eye contact with the blonde boy for a few seconds before speaking.

"Then she's got a few months at the most." She said.

"A few months before what?" Jaune worriedly asked.

Yang looked away as tears began to slowly cascade down her cheeks. Blake quickly put her hand on her partner's shoulder.

"Hey," she said. "It might not be cancer."

"And if it is?" Yang angrily asked. Her eyes were now blood red as she stared at Blake.

"Then we will do everything we can to help her in her time of need."

Yang grinned, wiping away the tears.

"Miss Xiao Long?" A voice asked from behind her. Yang quickly stood and turned around to face the source. It was the doctor.

"Did you find out what it is?" She worriedly asked.

He nodded.

"Please tell me." She begged.

He shook his head. "I can't tell anyone anything until the girl's father arrives."

Yang's eyes turned red. "I'm her sister!" She shouted.

He nodded. "Yes, but unfortunately you are under the age of eighteen, so you cannot step forward as a guardian for Miss Rose. I can only disclose the full details to a parent or guardian, and they, in turn can decide who else receives the information."

Yang quickly pulled out her scroll and began dialing her father's number. He quickly answered.

"Do they know what it is yet?" He asked.

"Yeah." She said. "But they won't tell me because you're not here."

The man angrily groaned. "I won't be there for another hour or two, dammit! Let me talk to 'em."

Yang handed her scroll to the doctor, and he brought it to his ear.

"Mister Xiao—." The doctor began.

There was a long silence before he spoke again.

"I cannot disclose the medical details of a minor to another minor."

There was a pause, before he spoke again.

"I suppose that might work." He said. He handed Yang her phone back and motioned for her to follow him. He led her back the way he came, down the long hospital hallway.

"While," he said. "I cannot tell you what is wrong with your sister. She can."

He led her down several hallways before he stopped in front of a big, blue door. He turned and opened the door for the blonde. The first thing she noticed, was a soft noise coming from the room as she entered. The doctor closed the door behind her as she walked the short hallway to where Ruby was.

The girl was sitting on the bed with her knees against her chest and her arms crossed. Her forehead was resting on her forearms and her body rhythmically shook. The noise was coming from her; she was crying.

Yang quickly sat down on the edge of Ruby's bed, hugging the girl tightly. It seemed to calm her down slightly.

"What's wrong, Rubes?" Yang asked, not really thinking about the circumstances.

"It's not fair!" The younger girl sobbed.

"What isn't?" Yang asked.

"Th-They told me," Ruby began, her voice quivering. "That I ha-have lung cancer."

Yang tightened the hug between the two.

"It'll be okay." She told her.

Ruby roughly pushed the blonde away, resulting in Yang falling off the bed and onto the floor. They were both shocked by what had happened, but Ruby quickly got over it.

"No!" She yelled. "No it won't!"

"Ruby—"

"I'm going to die!" Ruby yelled even louder. "This year!"

Yang shook her head. "No." She said. "Maybe if we start treatment soon, we can get you to twenty."

Ruby threw a pillow at Yang, which she caught.

"You don't understand!" Ruby sobbed. "I don't want to die at twenty! I don't want to die…"

The girl began to sob even harder and it broke Yang's heart.

"I don't want you to de either." Yang told her. "And I'm sorry, but it looks like twenty is pushing it."

Yang herself began to tear up.

"Seventeen." Ruby muttered.

"What?"

"Best case scenario, with chemo, I live another two years."

"Dammit." Yang quietly cursed. She suddenly punched the pillow as hard as she could.

"Mother fucker!" She screamed. It was all sinking in for her; she was going to live three fourths of her life without her beloved baby sister.

Ruby whimpered sadly as she watched her older sister tear apart a pillow.


	3. Crystal

**A/N: I know I should probably be writing The General's Fall, but I really want to write this to the point that I'm just having a hard time with writing General's Fall. Anyway, I'll try to get back to it soon, but for now I'm gonna work on this.**

Yang sighed heavily as she threw herself into a chair beside her teammates. Ruby had requested to be left alone, and Yang thought that maybe Ruby needed to be left alone.

"Did you find out what it was?" Weiss calmly asked.

Yang paused for a second, before saying, "No. She wouldn't tell me."

[Shift]

When Taiyang finally arrived, he angrily stomped through the waiting room, not even acknowledging his eldest daughter and her friends. He almost ran to the receptionist, and left her as soon as he arrived, having everything he needed.

The man quickly pushed past the large doors, darting down the hallway to the room where his daughter was. He walked for what felt like days before he finally reached her room.

Taiyang delicately pushed the door open, sauntering around the corner to the bed. Her knees were pushed up against her chest and her arms were crossed, resting atop of her knees. Her head was buried in her arms and she was loudly sobbing. The loud sobs were occasionally interrupted by loud coughing that echoed throughout the room. It didn't take him long to figure out why she was crying.

He quietly sighed. She was going to die. Soon. Despite his instincts telling him to find the nearest liquor store, he moved closer, taking a seat on the bed next to her. The movement on the mattress caused the girl to suddenly look up.

Her hair was a mess, hairs sticking up all over her head, pointing in every direction. Her eyes were red and puffy, indicating that she had been crying for quite some time. On top of the fact that she looked terribly sad, she looked angry as well. Not at him, of course, just in general.

"Hey,—" Cough, "Dad." She quietly said, putting her head back down.

"Hey." He said back.

The loud sobbing didn't continue, but he knew her well enough to know that she was still crying.

He sadly sighed and moved closer to her, pulling his daughter into a hug. Or at least he tried to. He put one arm around her and she quickly pushed it away.

He sighed again.

"I'll just leave you alone for now." He told her, slowly getting up. "I'll just be in the other room if you need me."

He began to walk away, but stopped when she called out.

"Wait," she said. "They said I could leave as soon as you got here."

He looked at her for a second before nodding. She was already dressed in her normal attire and ready to leave.

"Let's go, then." He said, motioning for her to follow him.

Ruby stood, and Taiyang could see the gears turning in her head. She had an idea.

"Yeah," she said. "I've got something I need to do anyway. Homework."

Taiyang bit his lip, but understood completely; she wanted to act as though nothing was wrong, so that's how he would treat her.

She quickly dried her tears as the two walked past the receptionist, into the waiting room. Taiyang went up to the desk, while Ruby approached her friends and teammates.

"Are you okay?" Jaune immediately asked her.

She nodded. "Just tired is all."

Yang looked at her for a second, making eye contact with her sister. She understood what Ruby was going for. She didn't want to be treated any differently. Taiyang must have heard the exchange as well, as he managed to discreetly hand Ruby the business card for an oncologist.

"Just try not to push yourself so hard in the future." Taiyang said.

Ruby tightly clutched the card in her hand as Taiyang left. He mouthed the words, "Two weeks." As he walked out. It meant he'd be back in two weeks to take her to the oncologist.

[Shift]

The ride back to Beacon was quiet and uneventful, the only sounds being Ruby's occasional coughing. No words were spoken until both teams returned to their respective dorms, and Ruby started dialing a number on her scroll.

"Who're you calling?" Yang asked, throwing herself onto her bed.

"Amir." Ruby said. "I'm quitting. I can't do this anymore."

Yang quickly sat up and the other two stared at her.

"It's not like we needed the extra lien in the first place." Ruby told them. "So, I'm done."

The other three were shocked; Ruby would usually do whatever it took to help her friends, necessary or not. What had changed? Only Yang knew the answer to this question, not that she would share it with the others.

[The Next Day]

Ruby knew exactly what she was going to do, in light of the bad news. She needed to leave behind something so that she wouldn't be forgotten so easily. She always knew that she would eventually repay her older sister for the kindness she had been shown, she just thought she would have more time to do something meaningful. Unfortunately, she didn't, so she was going to have to settle for some form of inheritance. She couldn't tell Yang that she was working on creating an inheritance, of course, the blonde would try to stop her. But she did know one person who would be able to help, and wouldn't tell a soul. The only question was whether or not he would help.

"Sun." She said, sitting down across from the monkey faunas. Both of the leader's teams had already finished eating, and had left them both alone in the cafeteria.

"Yo." He said, looking up from his food. He looked a little shocked to see her, but quickly pushed those thoughts aside.

"You're…" he paused. "You're Blake's leader. Ruby, right?"

She nodded. "We've met a few times before."

"What'cha need?" He nonchalantly asked, beginning to stuff his face with bananas.

She looked around and sighed, "You know a good way to make a lot of money fast?" She asked.

He stopped. "Like, illegal stuff?" He quietly asked.

"Doesn't matter." She told him.

"What makes you think I'd know?" He asked.

She gave him a look.

"What?!" Sun asked, throwing his hands in the air.

Ruby continued to look at him, and he rolled his eyes.

"Fine!" He said. "I know a bit about the illegal stuff."

She gave him the look again and he sighed.

"I know a lot about the illegal stuff." He quietly said.

"That's what I wanted to hear." She told him, subtly grinning. He shook his head.

"Now," Ruby began. "What's the best and quickest way to do this?"

"Crystal." Sun quietly told her.

"What?"

"Y'know. Crystal."

"I'm not following."

Sun sighed and shook his head, "Crystal is a type of dust that gets it's user extremely high. It's illegal."

"Of course." Ruby said. "How do we get some? To sell it, of course."

" _You_ make it." Sun emphasized the point of her being alone on this, but she ignored him.

She rolled her eyes, "And how do we make it?"

Sun laughed, "You think, if I knew how to make it, I'd be here?"

Ruby shrugged.

"And," he added, "If you wanna get anywhere selling that, you've gotta make the best damn crystal on the planet. You've gotta be like a chemistry teacher or something!"

"We're in a school, Sun." Ruby pointed out. "It wouldn't be too hard to figure it out after a visit to the library."

"Yeah," Sun said. "But who's got time for that? Libraries are so boring!"

Ruby shook her head and stood.

"I'm gonna go study up on this." She told him. "Don't help if you don't wanna."

He nodded. "Yeah. I won't."

[Shift]

Ruby sat in her chemistry class, struggling to keep her eyes open. She had stayed up a majority of the night trying to learn about making this "crystal" stuff, and still only had a basic understanding of the substance. She read chemistry books, and even looked it up— with a VPN, of course.

"Miss Rose?" Professor Peach suddenly asked, tearing Ruby from her less than legal thoughts.

"Hm?" Ruby asked.

Peach rolled her eyes, and asked the question again, "Can you tell me what the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is?" She asked.

Ruby slightly nodded, "Any of a variety of mathematical inequalities asserting a fundamental limit to the precision with which certain pairs of physical properties of a particle, known as complementary variables, such as position x and momentum p, can be known." Ruby quickly said, monotone.

Her team looked at her, shocked. Peach was shocked as well, looking at the girl with a proud smile.

"What?" Ruby asked, looking around at all those staring at her.

"Nothing." Peach said, turning back to the board. Ruby's team quickly turned their gazes from their leader, to their teacher. Ruby just shrugged this off and returned to her daze.

[Shift]

It had been a few days since Ruby had begun her mission to create crystal, and she had gotten pretty far, using all of her spare time studying the substance. And now, she had finally figured out the process. She had spent her nights breaking into the chemistry lab and stealing what equipment she needed. Now, all she needed to do was get the substances required to formulate such product, and a place to cook. Fortunately, Weiss had all the dust she needed, and every team had a sort of lounge room somewhere in Beacon. A room that no one from Team RWBY entered, at least to Ruby's knowledge.

It was the perfect place for it, so long as she managed to filter out the smell, something she could easily do with a few purifiers, fans and open windows.

She had already stored all of her equipment in there, as well as the dust she "borrowed" from Weiss. She just needed to cook it now.

Ruby had stolen a gas mask from the science department, and had even bought those jumpsuits that people use for painting. With this, she could keep the smell off of her, and herself alive were she to screw up in a big way. She knew it probably wasn't the best idea to do this on Beacon Campus, but what other choice did she have? No one would help her. It's not like she could ask for help anyway. If she told her team that she was trying to use dust to create Methamphetamine. That was the official term for the "Crystal" as Sun had called it. Crystal was just a street name. It was called that because most of those who used it were so fried that methamphetamine was too big of a word for them, so they just called it crystal. Or just meth, depending on who you asked.

Ruby sighed. She had covered most of the lounge in plastic wrap to keep the smell from soaking into the carpet and walls, as well as making a quick clean-up easy—if it ever came to that, of course. Ruby hoped to whatever God might exist that it never came to that. She hoped that she could just sell it to some distributor for a few thousand as long as she could until one day she just never woke up in the morning.

Of course, this was probably the route that would hurt her family the most, finding out in such a way. If there even was a way for them to find out.

But that didn't matter now. All that mattered was cooking. If she didn't cook, then there wouldn't be any money to leave.

Ruby softly hummed to herself as she began the long process of making methamphetamine. She didn't get very far before her scroll began to buzz. She rolled her eyes and answered it without checking the caller ID.

"Hello?" She asked.

"Hey," Yang's voice came through the other end.

"Yang," Ruby said. "I'm a little busy right now. You think this could wait?"

Yang paused for a second, "Ye—Yeah." She said. "Just, uh, just call me back whenever you get a chance."

"Will do!" Ruby happily said.

"Sorry for bothering you." Despite her words, Yang didn't sound particularly upset, just apologetic.

"It's fine, really." Ruby said.

"Yeah. Talk to you later."

"Yup. Bye."

Ruby hung up and sighed. This would be extremely hard to do without Yang finding out. Nearly impossible. Luckily, Ruby knew how to slip things under Yang's nose. As long as she didn't act any different when she was around Yang, the blonde would never know that anything was happening at all.

[Shift]

Ruby watched the chemicals slowly travel down the long, thin tube, into her arm. Everything felt numb as she absentmindedly watched the chemicals travel into her bloodstream.

"So," A voice said. "What are the side effects of this?"

Ruby turned her attention to the voice, now blankly staring at her father as he spoke to a nurse. The nurse paused for a second and looked at Ruby before looking back at Taiyang.

"Well," she said. "There's mainly just fatigue and pain."

"Pain?" Taiyang asked, worriedly looking at Ruby. Her eyes were on him, but she wasn't looking at him. It was like he wasn't even there to her. Like she was just looking through him.

"Small amounts, usually in the fingers or toes." The nurse told him.

Taiyang paused for a minute or two, staring at Ruby.

"She's not getting high off this, is she?" He asked.

The nurse shook her head. "This happens all the time. The magnitude of this whole situation is probably just now sinking in for her."

Taiyang snapped his fingers in front of her face and she jumped back, rapidly blinking as she was broken from her trance.

"You okay?" He asked. She watched the nurse walk off, then turned back to him.

"Yeah." She said. "I'm fine. I'm still shocked is all."

He rested his hand atop of hers.

"It's gonna be okay." He assured her.

"Yeah."


	4. Shake

Ruby's hand shook and tears ran down her face as she reached for her dorm's doorknob. Her breath came in deep, shaky breaths. The doorknob made a soft shaking noise as she wrapped her small hand around it. She slowly turned the knob and pushed the door open, taking a step into the room.

 **[The One Who Knocks]**

 **A/N: So, I'm going to start doing what Breaking Bad did, showing you a bit of the end of a chapter, then showing you everything before that. The A/N should be going just below the end part as well, as well as the brackets you see above this. Should serve as a title sequence of sorts. And I would like to add that Salem doesn't exist in this story, so Cinder's not planning on taking down Beacon or anything like that. Ruby only got in to Beacon early because Roman was still robbing that dust shop on that night. And Ruby was still there.**

Ruby sat down in front of Sun once more, causing the monkey faunas to sigh.

"I told you," He said. "I'm not getting involved."

Ruby shook her head, "I'm not asking you to get involved." She told him. "I'm asking if you want to buy."

Sun laughed. "You think I'm going to by Crystal here? From you?"

He laughed again. "That's how you get arrested."

She rolled her eyes and discreetly slid him a small ziplock bag. He quickly took it under his hand, not wanting anyone to see it. He brought his hand closer to his chest and flipped it around, looking at the contents of the bag.

"Holy shit." He said, putting it back down and looking at her. She had a smug grin on her face.

"This is like, clear as hell." He told her.

She sarcastically feigned surprise, "Really?" She asked. "I didn't notice."

"I gotta get in on this." He said.

"What happened to, 'I don't wanna get involved'?" She asked him.

"That's before I saw the product." He told her. "Besides, you need someone to sell don't you?"

She shook her head. "I can do that myself." She began to stand, but stopped when he spoke.

"Yeah," Sun said. "And get arrested within a week."

Ruby sat back down.

"I know the streets," he told her. "You know the chemistry. This could work."

Ruby pursed her lips, considering his offer.

"I don't know."

Sun looked around the cafeteria, his eyes landing at the table Team RWBY regularly sat, now deserted, "You let me in on this, and I don't tell anyone."

Ruby's eyes widened and her face fell into a frown.

"You wouldn't." She said.

He smirked. "I would. In fact, I have Blake on speed dial." He said. He quickly pulled out his scroll. "Why don't we give her a call."

Ruby watched helplessly as he opened pressed the call button next to Blake's name. There were two rings before Ruby stopped him.

"Alright!" She almost shouted, causing her to cough a bit. "Partners. Fifty-fifty."

Sun gave a satisfied smile, but did not remove the scroll from his ear. Ruby's body froze up and she felt as though she was about to cry. She didn't want her team to know about this, so she had told Sun what he wanted to hear. So why was he still calling her?

"Hello?" Ruby faintly heard Blake's voice on the other end of the call, and she made eye contact with Sun.

"Oh," he said. "Is this Blake?"

"Yes."

"I meant to call someone else. Sorry!"

Blake quickly hung up and Ruby sighed in relief, coughing a little.

"Never do that again." She told him.

Sun grinned smugly, "We should probably go somewhere a little more private. To talk business, ya know?"

Ruby nodded, "Like where?"

"Christ," he said, standing. "I never thought I'd say this, but, to the library!"

[Shift]

Ruby and Sun sat across from one another in the empty and quiet library. It was a Friday and there were no upcoming tests, so there wasn't anyone there, giving them all the privacy they needed.

"Alright," Sun said. "I think the best way to do this is probably to try and start with a distributor."

"Then what do I need you for?" Ruby asked.

"You need my connections." Sun said. "With most of these guys, you need connections. They're not about to let some undercover cop into their organization. Ya know what I'm saying?"

Ruby nodded. "So you know a guy?"

Sun tilted his head to the side, shrugging, "Well," he said. "I know a guy who works for a guy."

Ruby leaned back and rolled her eyes.

"Can he get us distribution?" She asked him.

"Hell yeah." Sun told her. "If your shit is half as good as it looks, then it should be no problem getting us in."

[Shift]

Ruby was in her dorm, sitting at her desk and listening to music. Her leg was bouncing up and down with the beat and she tapped her finger against the desk as the same pace.

"Something wrong?" Ruby barely heard Yang's voice with her headphones on, but it was clear enough for her to understand.

Ruby shook her head, "No."

Yang sat at the desk beside Ruby's and looked around the room. Weiss and Blake were both absent from the room, each having their own things going on.

"So," Yang said. "We haven't had much time to talk recently."

Ruby nodded, pausing her music and moving her headphones down to her neck.

"You wanna talk about the cancer, don't you?" Ruby somberly asked.

"Only if you're ready to talk about it." Yang told her.

"What's there to talk about?" Ruby harshly asked.

"I don't know." Yang said. "How you feel about this whole thing? How it affects you?" She paused. "How it affects the team? I mean, we can't keep this from Weiss and Blake forever. They deserve to know."

Ruby glared at her.

"You want me to answer them in that order?" She asked.

"Doesn't matter."

"Alright," Ruby began. "It doesn't matter how I feel. It happened. I'm going to die. That's how it affects me. And it won't affect the team until I'm dead. And my hair should start falling out soon. That and the weekly doctor's appointments I've had. They're smart girls, they'll figure out that we lied to them before we can tell them."

Yang leaned in, "That's a shitty way of finding out your friend's going to die."

"A lot of stuff that's happened recently are the 'shittiest ways' to find out anything!" Ruby said, causing Yang to reel back. Ruby had never cursed before, and had usually called out others for cursing in front of her.

Yang angrily huffed. "Language." She said.

Ruby sighed and rolled her eyes, "Whatever…"

She began to put her headphones back on, but Yang stopped her.

"Hey," she said. "I know you're getting to that age where you hate everyone and everything, and that's coupled with cancer. But, I'm on your side."

Ruby sighed, stood and headed for the door. Yang leapt to her feet and grabbed Ruby's arm, stopping her from leaving.

"Where are you going?" She asked.

"Out." Ruby harshly said.

"Out where?"

Ruby shrugged. "Out."

She jerked away from Yang's grip and slipped out the door, leaving the blonde wondering what just happened.

[Shift]

Ruby and Sun sat back down at the library, in the same seats that had the previous afternoon. This time there was much less to talk about.

"So," Sun said. "I talked to my guy, who talked to his boss. He said he's gonna send someone to talk to you. They wanna check you out first. And not in the weird, 'Let's see how hot she is' kinda way, more in the 'Let's make sure she's not a cop' kinda way. Not that they wouldn't think you're hot or anything. I mean, they might, they might not. We don't know that. I, personally, am not attracted to you, but it's not that you're not attractive, it's just that I've got my eye on someone else. Not that you—."

"Sun." Ruby said. "I get the point."

Sun shut his mouth and nodded, "Right."

"Where are we meeting them?" She asked.

"Well," Sun began. "We sure as hell can't meet them here."

"Figured as much." She said. "What about Forever Fall?"

Sun shook his head. "What?!" He asked. "No! You always meet in a public place. So they can't rob you or anything."

Ruby shook her head. "I'm not meeting a bunch of drug dealers in a public place."

"Why not?!"

Ruby gave him a look, "We'll meet them in Forever Fall." She sternly told him.

He sighed. "Fine!"

[Shift]

Ruby softly rubbed her scalp as she rinsed out her hair. Something felt wrong, it was as if the hair was sticking to her hands as she did this. Ruby immediately brought her hands in front of her face. There were large clumps of red and black hair wrapped around her hands and fingers. Ruby sighed as she realized why this was; her hair was falling out.

She quickly turned off the shower, stepped out and began drying herself. Once she was done drying off she put her school uniform on. Then, she turned to the mirror. Her hair was a patchy mess. There were bald spots all over, but it seemed that all that was going to come out today already had.

Realizing she only had one option left, Ruby called out the bathroom door.

"Yang!" She said. "I need you to help me with something!"

Ruby heard the shuffling of feet outside, and the bathroom door opened. Lilac eyes met silver before Yang saw Ruby's hair.

"What happened to your hair?" Yang didn't think much about what she was saying before it came out of her mouth, so Ruby just glared at her.

"I'm not going anywhere like this." The younger girl said.

"And you want me to shave your head?" Yang asked.

Ruby bashfully nodded, handing Yang a razor. The blonde girl stifled a laugh and shook her head.

"That won't do it." She said.

Yang turned around and left the bathroom. Luckily, their other teammates had already left for class, so they could do this without Ruby having to worry about anyone else finding out about her illness.

Yang could hear Ruby coughing as she retrieved something their father had given her, expecting such a situation from the younger girl. The blonde soon returned to the bathroom with an electric razor and a small trash can.

"You know," Yang said, plugging the device into the wall. "This will be pretty hard to hide. Are you sure you don't want me to tell them?"

Ruby nodded.

"Alright then." Yang quickly pressed a button and the razor began to buzz. This sound made Ruby incredibly nervous, as she knew, after this, there was no hiding it.

[Shift]

All eyes were on Ruby and Yang as they walked into Port's class late. Ruby had expected such and was wearing a beanie to hide her distinct lack of hair. It fit loosely, as it belonged to her older sister, who had put her hair up to draw attention away from the younger. And it worked, for the most part. The more observant students still noticed the differences in the way Ruby looked, as well as the way she almost sprinted to her seat. However, most of these students barely knew Ruby and took no concern in it. Even Weiss and Blake were so shocked by Yang's difference in hair style that they failed to notice their leader's.

This strategy managed to work for the rest of the school day, and even all the way until their dinner. Unfortunately, Nora was very observant and immediately asked the younger girl.

"Your hair looks shorter!" She exclaimed.

"No," Ruby immediately looked up from her food, trying not to panic. "I just put it up and I'm wearing a hat on top of it."

"Oh." Nora paused, and looked back down at her food, before looking right back up with a huge smile on her face. "What does it look like?"

Ruby shrugged. "Like I have my hair up." She said.

"Can I see?" Nora politely asked.

Ruby shook her head and looked over at Yang, who pretended not to see her.

"Why not?"

"Because it looks weird."

"Then why do you have it like that?"

"Because my hair looks like crap."

"It can't be that bad."

"It is. Drop it."

Nora winced at Ruby's harsh tone, and everyone stared at the younger girl, the only exception being Yang, who was trying to act as though she was oblivious to Ruby's struggle.

Ruby suddenly stood and began to quickly walk away. Weiss and Blake both shared a look before going after her. It wasn't very long before the managed to catch her, blocking her path down the hallway.

"What is going on with you?" Weiss asked. "You're acting weird."

Ruby stared at them for a second before checking the clock on her scroll.

"We'll talk about it later," she said. "I've got somewhere to be."

Ruby pushed past her teammates, running down the hall until she was out of sight.

[Shift]

As Sun and Ruby made the short trek to Forever Fall, Sun found himself giving Ruby odd looks. Not romantic ones, no. But rather a look that said that he could not believe what he was seeing. The girl was wearing a long, black wig, as well as a pork pie hat and a pair of Ray Bans. To cover the rest of her body, she wore a dark grey V-neck, a black leather jacket and a dark colored pair of jeans.

Sun, however, wore the same thing he wore everyday.

"You realize how freaking shady you look, right?" Sun suddenly asked.

Ruby only gave him a short glance.

"What makes you say that?" She boredly asked.

"The dark colors, the sunglasses, the hat." He said. "And are you wearing a wig?"

Ruby rolled her eyes underneath her sunglasses and looked over at him once again.

"I have a lot of recognizable features that are exclusive to me." She told him.

"Like what?"

"Hmm… I don't know, maybe it's the silver eyes and the red and black hair. And maybe even the red cloak." Ruby sarcastically said.

Sun offered no response, he just sighed and rolled his eyes.

After a few more minutes of silence, Sun suddenly stopped and started looking for something inside his shirt.

"Wait." He said.

Ruby stopped as well and annoyedly turned around, watching as he pulled something from his shirt.

Ruby was shocked to see that it was a handgun. One that she had a hard time recognizing, as there was a leather holster wrapped around the barrel.

"Here." He held the gun out to her, and she just stared at it. Sun shook it a little, "Take it." He told her.

Ruby reluctantly grabbed the weapon and took it out of its holster.

"Is this aura piercing?!" She shrieked.

"Uh, yeah!" Sun said, acting as though it were obvious. "You can probably fit the holster into your waistband."

"I thought this was just a simple deal!" She shouted.

"Well," Sun said. "Yeah. But someone suggested that we meet in the middle of nowhere, so I have to make sure we don't get shot."

"I'm not going to shoot anyone." Ruby told him.

"And you probably won't have to." Sun said.

She just looked at him.

"Look," he said. "No one's gonna blame you if you forge a silver bullet."

"However, if you use one…" Ruby added.

Sun rolled his eyes, "Just hold onto it for now and give it back after this thing is over."

Ruby shakily sighed, checking to make sure the safety was on. It wasn't. She loudly groaned and flipped the safety on, then she put it back into its holster and slid it into her waistband, allowing it to clip onto her belt.

[Shift]

Ruby and Sun waited for a few hours before the distributor's guys showed up. Both of them looked to be in their twenties and current meth users. This made Ruby the slightest bit nervous, but she shrugged it off.

"Who's this?" One asked, pointing to Ruby.

Sun looked over at her, and pointed as well.

"This is the cook, R—"

"Heisenberg." Ruby cut him off.

Sun scoffed.

"RHeisenberg?" The second guy asked.

Ruby shook her head. "Just Heisenberg."

The first guy shook away the conversation, waving off the second.

"Sun," he said. "I thought you said you'd come alone."

"No," Sun said. "I said 'we'd come alone'."

The man just shook his head.

"Maybe if you hadn't brought her, then maybe your lady friend could have lived a little longer."

Ruby suddenly looked over at Sun, a look of terror on her face.

Both of the men quickly drew their weapons and began to shoot at Ruby, who used her semblance to take cover behind the trees. Sun just used his clone semblance to create some cover so he could also get to the trees.

"You might wanna start shooting!" Sun shouted at Ruby as he quickly split his staff into its nunchuck form. The monkey faunas dove out from behind the trees and fired at the men. He managed to hit one, and send him flying into a nearby tree, but the other man managed to hit him in the leg.

Sun cried out in pain as the aura-piercing bullet tore through his leg, and the man slowly approached him, pressing the barrel of the gun against his skull.

The loud gunshot made Ruby jump, regardless of the fact that she had fired a gun many times before. This time was different. The man that was just about to kill Sun fell to the ground, and Ruby dropped the gun, tears flowing down her face as she realized what she had done. No matter how much she may want to, there was no bringing that man back to life. He was dead because she shot him.

The young girl fell to her knees and began heavily sobbing as she thought more and more about her actions.


End file.
